Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz and company began their crusade on Nuke, putting up a stellar defensive effort as they kept Cloud9 at bay for the majority of the half. Solid fragging by the team's Canadian in-game leader and Tsvetelin "CeRq" Dimitrov saw NRG up 13-2 at the half.

Although NRG further added to their lead with a pistol round victory following the side swap, Timothy "autimatic" Ta began to help his side reduce the deficit as they attempted a comeback effort, moving up to a 14-7 scoreline before NRG claimed match point. Cloud9 continued to fight back for two additional rounds, but the lopsided scoreline of the first half proved too tall a hill to climb as NRG took the first map of the series 16-9.

NRG's pick of Dust2 saw more contention between the two sides. Another pistol round victory for stanislaw's side allowed NRG a two-round lead to start off the map, but their narrow advantage was quickly left by the wayside as Cloud9 answered back with a six-round spree of their own. The two teams traded a trio of rounds as the half neared its end, although NRG were able to add a final point to their tally to trail 6-9 as they swapped to the offense.

NRG continued their winning record in the series as the fourth and final pistol round also went their way, but a triple kill by autimatic allowed for Cloud9 to answer back in the ensuing round and keep their lead. Despite NRG replying with a round of their own, Cloud9 maintained control as they further extended their lead to a 13-8 scoreline. Despite Kenneth "koosta" Suen's best efforts however, Cloud9 were unable to add any additional rounds to the board, with NRG sweeping the remainder of the map to take the win 16-13.

ECS Season 8 North America Week 1

Best of three maps

NRG

2 - 0

Cloud9

de_nuke

16 - 9

de_nuke

de_dust2

16 - 13

de_dust2

de_train

de_train

The grand final matchup will see Sharks take on NRG tomorrow at 6 PM EDT for the lion's share of the weekly prize pool. As a reminder, the winner of the first two weeks will not directly qualify for the ECS Season 8 Finals, but rather the team with the most combined prize winnings between the two weeks will earn the first spot at the LAN.